January 24, 2023 - Monterey Park mass shooting

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel Wednesday to California to mourn the 11 victims in the Monterey Park mass shooting, her office said.

Harris will be the highest-ranking official from the Biden administration to visit the scene. The California native is expected to lay a wreath honoring the victims, meet with families of those impacted and the young man credited with disarming the gunman — Brandon Tsay.

The office did not say whether Harris will also visit Half Moon Bay, where seven people were killed in a mass shooting on Monday.

On Sunday, the vice president addressed the shooting, and declared: “This violence must stop. 

“I do want to address the tragedy of what happened in my home state, in Monterey Park, California,” Harris told a crowd in Tallahassee, Florida, addressing the shooting at the beginning of her remarks on Roe v. Wade.

“A time of a cultural celebration… and yet another community has been torn apart by senseless gun violence,” Harris said, noting that the shooting took place the weekend of the Lunar New Year. 

Harris is the first South Asian and Black US vice president.

Ming Wei Ma, an employee of the Star Ballroom Dance known by the nickname Little Ma Brother, was described by a patron as “very enthusiastic” and very involved in the operations at the studio.

Ma was one of the 11 people killed in the mass shooting at the dance hall on Saturday night.

May Hua Huang, a regular at the studio, said Ma didn’t teach dance and mostly managed, but one time helped her learn the Cha Cha.

“One time, I said I don’t know how to dance the Cha Cha,” Huang told CNN. “He said, ‘here, I’ll show you.’ He led me to the dance floor and we did a few steps. He said, ‘you do know how.’ I said, ‘I’ve never danced this before.’ He said, ‘this is easy!’ I said, ‘you teach me then.’ He said, ‘no, no — there are actual instructors here. There are instructors.’”

Huang learned of the shooting when her son called her around 8:00 a.m. PT Sunday to see if she was OK.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I immediately looked at the media, and suddenly I felt like my heart was so tight. How could something like this happen? So horrifying.”

Shuhui Peng, a friend of Ma’s, described him as being a cultural force in the Monterey Park entertainment community.

Adam Hood, a former friend of the Monterey Park suspected gunman Huu Can Tran, described Tran as distrustful. 

“His personality can be summed up in two words: distrust, he did not trust anyone,” Hood said. “And hatred. He could hate people to death. He pushed it to the extreme.”  

Hood said he hadn’t seen Tran, who’s accused of shooting and killing 11 people at a California dance studio, in about eight or nine years. Hood had rented an apartment from Tran and ultimately knew him for 20 years, but they had a falling out, as reported in the New York Times. 

Hood refused to be recorded or have his photo taken. He referred to Tran as Andy, the name he says Tran used. 

Hood said his former friend hated “whoever he thought was not nice to him” and that “there were other dance instructors he did not like at both (Lai Lai and Star Ballrooms).”

He added that Tran thought “the instructors were not nice to him, he thought they spoke evil of him.”

“That was baseless,” Hood said. “He was always unhappy with the people in the studios, always complaining about studio bosses and other instructors, not about the students. It was all in his mind.”

“He didn’t like people. He never fought with anyone or argued. Basically I think it was his personality and he hated people to the bone,” he added.

According to Hood, Tran lived a simple life, had no friends or other hobbies and he always liked to dance.

Hood, who lives about 10 minutes from Star Ballroom in an apartment complex, says that he hasn’t been to the studio since the pandemic and doesn’t plan on returning. 

He said he’s afraid that he will know many of the victims on the coroner’s list.

Earlier today, the coroner identified all 11 who were killed.

Authorities are still investigating many of the details of the mass shooting Saturday that left 11 people dead and injured nine others at a dance studio on Lunar New Year in Monterey Park, California.

The man who disarmed the 72-year-old gunman at the second dance studio in nearby Alhambra described to CNN the moment he came face to face with the gunman:

“I just had this rush of thought and adrenaline. I was able to come to the conclusion that I needed to do something, I needed to grab the gun. I needed to save myself and people inside,” Brandon Tsay said.

The suspect fled and Tsay called police to the site. Less than a day later, the suspect was found dead inside a white van about 30 miles away in Torrance as a SWAT team swarmed the vehicle. The sheriff said the suspect died following a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Here’s the latest on the shooting and investigation:

The Los Angeles County Coroner Medical Examiner’s Office has released the names of all 11 victims in the Monterey Park mass shooting. All were in their late 50s to mid 70s.

The names are:

There have been 39 mass shootings in the United States so far this year — putting 2023 on pace to have the most mass shootings at this point than any year on record, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). In a three-day span, three mass shootings have taken place in California, including Monday’s shooting in Half Moon Bay.

The dangerous pace of mass shootings escalated in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and has persisted since then. Between 2019 and 2020, the total number of mass shootings each year jumped from 417 to 610. Then, 2021 became the worst year for mass shootings since GVA began tracking them in 2012, with 690 across 44 states and Washington, DC. There were 647 mass shootings in 2022.

Here’s a look at the rise of mass shootings across the years:

More on the data: CNN reports mass shootings based on data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence in the United States. CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter. The number of mass shootings and casualties is not exact and subject to change as reports from law enforcement, media and other sources GVA relies upon are updated and verified.

As investigators work to determine a motive in the mass shooting that killed 11 people and injured nine others at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, the community now faces a long road to recovery, its mayor said.

“People are just in disbelief and shock, and are feeling very numb,” Mayor Henry Lo told CNN Monday night. The Saturday night shooting came as the city’s majority Asian community was marking the Lunar New Year, bringing tragedy on what was supposed to be one of the most auspicious days of the calendar.

See photos from the scene:

Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo told CNN he wants to see the dance hall that was the site of a deadly shooting become a safe place again.  

The Star Ballroom Dance Studio where the shooting took place on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of 11 people, has been a staple of the community, Lo told CNN on Tuesday.   

“It was a place for people to socialize, to learn how to dance” and was frequented by many generations, he said. “We want to make sure that this dance hall continues to thrive and that people feel safe that they can socialize.” 

Lo said investigators “still don’t have a clear picture of the motive.” 

“My understanding is that the gunman had some history with the dance hall. In the past, he frequented [it] and I understand that he also met his ex-wife there,” he said. “However, again, we may never know what was the motivation.”

The suspect, identified as Huu Can Tran, was pronounced dead following a self-inflicted gunshot wound Sunday as police swarmed a white van in Torrance, about 30 miles from Monterey Park, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

His ex-wife and a longtime acquaintance both told CNN that Tran had once been a regular patron at the studio.

Val Anthony Alvero, the son of Monterey Park victim Valentino Alvero, told CNN that his dad was always upbeat and caring for others.

Alvero told CNN’s David Culver that his father hoped to retire in about a year and return to his native Philippines. In his free time, Valentino Alvero could be found at Star Ballroom Dance Studio.

“He’d dance around the house,” Val Anthony Alvero said. “He loved that kind of stuff.”

Val Anthony Alvero said the emotion of anger hasn’t surfaced yet against the suspected gunman.

“I don’t think it adds anything to be angry to the situation … I’d just like for better to come out of it,” he said.

It was late in the evening Saturday when Brandon Tsay heard the “distinct sound of metal” in the lobby of Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, a dance hall in Alhambra, California, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday evening.

Tsay, whose family had owned the business for three generations, was working the ticket office when someone entered, and he knew quickly the silent and stoic man was trouble.

The man, who appeared to be scouting the room, then pointed a firearm at him, Tsay said.

Tsay froze as he saw the armed man – who authorities say had just opened fire at a Lunar New Year celebration at another dance studio in nearby Monterey Park, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others.

He lunged towards Tran and struggled with him for about 40 seconds, but he said it felt like “way longer.” Tran hit him several times on his face, the back of his head and on his back and hands, Tsay said.

“I was trying to divert the weapon away from me and the ballroom, down on the ground in case he did fire,” he said.

In those seconds, as his life was on the line, Tsay thought to himself, “If I let go of this gun, what would happen to me, the people around me, my friends, my family?”

Tsay was eventually able to pull the gun away from the gunman – the first time he ever held a gun – and told him to leave, he said.

“I threatened him that I would shoot,” Tsay said. “I thought I would have to kill him. That I would have to shoot a person.”

At first, the man looked like he was considering attacking Tsay again, but then left the lobby and jogged back to his van, said Tsay, who earlier shared his account on “Good Morning America.”

After he left, Tsay immediately called police, still holding the gun in his hands.

Now Tsay is being hailed as a hero for stopping the man authorities say was responsible for devastating a majority Asian community on the eve of Lunar New Year. After opening fire inside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, the gunman went to the second dance hall in Alhambra, officials said.

Read more here.

Watch the interview here:

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03:43 - Source: cnn

The gunman was “very familiar” with the dance studio in Monterey Park where the shooting took place, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón told CNN’s Erin Burnett Monday.

“He has been part of that community, he met his ex-wife there,” Gascón said on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio. “There is certainly the appearance that this was targeted.”

As far as how the gunman was able to get a hold of weapons — one of which was a modified semi-automatic firearm — that are considered illegal in California, Gascón said he “has been a gun enthusiast for many years,” so it is possible he acquired some of the weapons before they were illegal in California.

At least one Chinese citizen was killed in the Monterey Park mass shooting on Saturday, the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles said in a statement.

The statement didn’t specify how many Chinese citizens were among the 11 victims. 

“The serious shooting incident in the Chinese community is shocking and deeply regrettable,” the Chinese Consulate’s statement read. The Chinese embassy and consulates in the US were ordered to lower their flags to half-staff.

The consulate also reminded Chinese citizens in its consular district to “raise risk awareness, strengthen security precautions, and ensure their own safety,” according to the statement.

Officials are still investigating many of the details of the mass shooting Saturday that left 11 people dead in Monterey Park, California.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and several other officials provided updates Monday while acknowledging they still don’t have a motive for the rampage at a dance studio.

What we know so far is that the 72-year-old gunman walked into Star Ballroom Dance Studio in the Los Angeles neighborhood and opened fire shortly after a Lunar New Year celebration. The man then drove to a second dance hall in neighboring Alhambra where he entered with a firearm but fled after being disarmed, officials said.

The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday when his vehicle was approached by police officers.

Here’s what else we learned: